I graduated from college 16 years ago today! (The anniversary is always easy to remember thanks to Cinco de Mayo.)

On another mind-bending “time flies” note, I realized last night that I have been blogging for nearly half my life. (The archives here go back to very shortly after this graduation.) Jose asked if any of my friends still blog and sadly, the answer is pretty much no except for a small few who blog very sporadically. I know my posts have declined in frequency lately but I still find myself here a couple times per week and still can’t imagine giving up this space anytime soon.

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After a warm and humid start, this week is wrapping up with some truly lovely weather — which I will enjoy as much as I possibly can. At the same time, I’m also trying to get my head wrapped around the coming summer weather. Towards the end of last summer I was really inspired by Kelsey’s plan to embrace the summer heat. She lives in the desert so it’s that whole “different kind of heat” there but the idea is definitely the same.

There are two things that immediately come to mind for me. The first is simply to embrace the sweat! It’s hot. It’s humid. Going outside for any length of time over about 3 minutes means that I WILL start to sweat…and that’s normal. Instead of feeling gross and being annoyed about it, I’m just going to start realizing that it is what it is. I’m also going to pay more attention to my summer clothing, and buy items that can stand up to sweat a bit better without looking icky. Time to finally jump all in to the athleisure trend perhaps?

The second is to just get over the fact that sunscreen makes me feel gross and wear it anyway. In past years, I’ve been known to postpone or even avoid activities that mean slathering up in sunscreen because I just don’t like feeling slimy, but with my fair skin it’s an absolute necessity. (I’ve said many times that if/when someone invents permanent sunscreen that you can inject into your skin, I will be alllll over it.) So new rule: wearing sunscreen is not a big deal. Just do it and move on.

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As I started this post, Jose texted me from the kolache place nearby. He stopped there with the girls for breakfast because they left too late to make breakfast at the daycare…and apparently someone spilled milk all over themselves. I don’t even know which kid it was but they’re now headed back to the house to change so I suppose I should go help them out. Kids! They just attract mess and spills like a magnet!

I took the morning off work yesterday to join Emma and her class on a field trip to Froberg’s for strawberry picking. I was expecting it to be warm and humid like Wednesday was, but was very pleasantly surprised by cool but sunny weather and low humidity. It was really the perfect day to be outside! I’m trying to soak up these nice spring days as much as possible and avoid thinking about the summer to come.

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After seeing them mentioned several places online and having their ads pop up incessantly on my Facebook page, I finally succumbed to the onslaught and ordered a few things for Emma from Primary. She suddenly seems to be outgrowing most of her wardrobe so some new items were quickly becoming a necessity anyway, and I like the idea of getting some simple basics to supplement what she still has. I ordered 2 different skirts, 2 different dresses, and 3 pairs of under shorts. She can be picky about clothes — so fingers crossed that she likes them!

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So the new running shoes I mentioned ordering a few weeks ago? They arrived, and I HATED them. They were a pair of Brooks PureFlow 5 that had been on clearance, and now I guess I know why they were 50% off! They felt very tight from the moment I put them on — too narrow — but I decided to give them a try. I took a 2 mile walk with Charlotte and by the halfway mark I knew the shoes had to go. My feet felt uncomfortably squeezed, and the tongue of the shoe dug annoyingly into the front of my ankles with every step. So back they went!

I ordered the PureCadence 6 instead and voila — they arrived and fit very comfortably right out of the box. I’ve done a few runs in them now and they’re great.

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Charlotte has been a handful this week, with lots of whining to be picked up/carried around/just generally held. But on the positive side, she’s starting to get a lot more communicative even without the benefit of being able to use many actual words. She LOVES bathtime right now and at the mere mention of the word, she runs to the bottom of the stairs and starts pointing up them. Going into her room first to get undressed results in impatient screeches until I put her back down on the floor and she can take off towards the bathroom.

(She looks different with wet hair dampening the curls, right??)

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This week has left me feeling spent. Hopefully I can manage a relaxing weekend. I need it.

The girls had Easter egg hunts at school yesterday, which of course they both loved. We have several plans for Saturday but nothing planned for Easter itself — I suspect we’ll just have several egg hunts in the backyard on Sunday!

Also, I need to get Charlotte an Easter basket. Yesterday she had to use a plastic bag. Mom of the year over here, y’all.

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Back when I ran multiple races per year, I diligently wrote up race reports after each one. But I don’t run as many events anymore and it didn’t even occur to me until last night that I should mention that I did a race last weekend! I did the Yuri’s Night 10K last Saturday. For (very) long-time readers, you may remember that this is the race I created, although it’s been in the very capable hands of other organizers for almost a decade now. I’ve run it many times since handing over the reins, and in my incredibly biased opinion, it is still my favorite local race. And thus, here is my race report:

I signed up a while ago, and chose the 10K over the 5K because why not? I’ve been running 5-6 miles every couple weeks so I knew the distance wouldn’t be a problem. I had no plans for speed and just figured I’d have fun…and when I showed up and ran into my friends Debbie and Jason, things worked out even better than expected. Debbie and I did the whole race together with my phone set to 4 minute run/1.5 minute walk intervals. We kept the running at a conversational pace and the time flew by even though it took almost an hour and a half to cross the finish line. We were basically the last people to finish — I think there were only 2 others behind us — and I don’t even care. I haven’t seen Debbie much in the last several years and it was awesome to hang out with her.

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Last week Jose and I went to Opening Day with the Astros and had a great time! It was my birthday present, so we splurged on some pretty good seats on the 3rd base side of the lower level. Long-time readers may also remember that I used to follow baseball pretty closely and even had partial season tickets for the Astros for several years in the mid-2000s. I haven’t followed the sport or even the team much in recent years — I could only identify 2 Astros players by name — but going to the game had us both feeling motivated to be better fans this year. (And maybe get new t-shirts, since the team has gone back to the orange/blue color scheme and our jerseys are dated…or can we just call them “retro?”) Jose has turned on the game each night since and left it on in the background while we putter around and I love it!

Yes, today we officially bid farewell to Chinaberry Park Lane. It’s a bittersweet moment — despite the sales process taking longer and being more stressful than we anticipated, I say goodbye to our first home with nothing but fond memories. Jose and I built this house while engaged, moved in as newlyweds, and brought both of our girls home for the first time here. It was the perfect house for 7+ years of our lives, and now I know it will be a great home to the new owners.

Last night I made everyone trek over to the old place one more time to take a family photo out front. The traffic getting there after work was horrendous, which yet again justified a major factor in our decision to move last summer. But it was worth it for the photo. I plan to get this one printed out and hang it up somewhere in our new place.

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In other news, I’m in denial that tomorrow is April already. This year is really flying past! Spring is all around — our yard has suddenly burst into bloom again and I swear the trees sprouted bushels of leaves practically overnight.

There’s also this guy — a cardinal who seems to have taken up residence in our general vicinity. He’s quite a singer too. I hear him first thing in the morning, before the sun is officially up but when the sky has started to lighten enough to know that day is on its way. I’ve always had a soft spot for cardinals. I hope he sticks around for a while.

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I got new running shoes this week after realizing my old pair had more than a year of wear on them. I’ve been wearing the Brooks PureCadence for several years now (and the Brooks Adrenaline for many years before that) but I decided to try the PureFlow this time around. The biggest news, however, is that I was able to order size 11.5! I’ve NEVER seen a size 11.5 in ANY shoe, much less a running shoe, so this was a huge deal to me.

See, I wear a size 11. Conventional running wisdom recommends sizing up by a half or whole size but that’s never really been an option since 11 is often the largest size anyone stocks. Fortunately I’ve never had a significant issue with pain or black toenails or anything like that — but I’m also ridiculously excited to finally have a pair of running shoes with just a bit more breathing room.

I’ve also discovered that running shoes are one of the only places that having an odd size can be a benefit. I’ve been able to get my past few purchases on sale when all they have left in a soon-to-be-retired model is under size 6 and above size 10. $55 for a pair that usually costs $120? Sold!

Two years ago…my brother-in-law got married.
Three years ago…I made my road trip case, which I still use for storing cross stitch stuff.
Four years ago…baby Emma started scooting!
Seven years ago…I wrote a surprising amount of words about the post office. (Ha!)
Eight years ago…Jose took me to Les Mis for my birthday!
Ten years ago…I did a half ironman!! (Oh man. This makes me miss doing triathlons. Maybe this summer I can do a short one…)
Eleven years ago…I’d just gotten back from a vacation skiing in Lake Tahoe.
Thirteen years ago…I taught someone what planets look like from here.

Hello!

I'm Sarah, a NASA engineer by day and quilter by night. I live in Houston with my husband and our two young daughters. I've had this ol' blog for more than 15 years, and these days it's home to my quilting work, snippets of family life, and occasional musings on my engineering career.